Tree stolen from Mill Ends Park replaced -- for the good of leprechauns, officials say

View full sizeA Charlie Brown occupation: Mill Ends Park, the world's smallest city park at 2 feet in diameter, shows its holiday colors Friday, Dec. 23, 2011 -- on the tree that was stolen within the past week. It still displays remnants of its Dec. 16 "occupation" by a flash mob of Occupy Portland demonstrators in which one person was arrested. The occupiers stuck tiny protest signs into the soil, such as "You can't evict an ideal," and ringed the concrete perimeter with plastic toy soldiers and tiny tents. The signs are gone, but the soldiers and tents remain. Bruce Ely / The Oregonian

The lone tree at Mill Ends Park on Southwest Naito Parkway and Taylor Street has been replaced after a vandal stole the existing tree.

Within the past week the tree, a variety of pine, was yanked out of its central place in the world's smallest city park, said Mark Ross, Portland Parks & Recreation spokesman.

Wednesday at 1 p.m. a Douglas Fir sapling was planted in its place.

"We had to do what we could to ensure the leprechauns had shade," Ross said, referring to the urban lore that leprechauns live in the 2-foot-diameter park, established by Dick Fagan in 1946.

In the '40s a hole was dug in the Naito Parkway median, presumably for a light pole, but the pole was never installed and the space became overgrown with weeds. Fagan planted flowers there and began referring to the "world's smallest park" in his "Mill Ends" column at the Oregon Journal newspaper.

Rumor had it, Ross says, that Fagan captured a leprechaun there and so got a wish. His wish was a park of his own. OK, the leprechaun said; the space you're standing in is now your park.

The park was dedicated to Fagan -- an Irishman -- on St. Patrick's Day 1948, and in 1976 Mill Ends became a city park.